Andrew Shum's questions

So, I am still using 14.04 at the moment and I know that end-of-support is coming at the end of this month unless you have extended security maintenance (which I don't).

However, I am a bit confused as to what exactly will happen. Searching online, I have seen two terms floating around: end-of-support and end-of-life. From what I can tell, both are different from what Canonical means when they refer to a release's lifespan. The trouble I have is telling if there is a difference between the two. Some pages I read treat them interchangeably while others do not. Some posts I have read use end-of-life to refer to when the repositories get moved/archived; thus preventing things such as the auto-update from working.

Regardless of which is which, when does the Ubuntu repository get archived? There doesn't seem to be a mention of that on the information page and the online posts I found simply mention that it happens, not when.

So, I have a HDD in a docking station that is connected via USB to my computer. I am running a python script stored on that drive that might be doing a lot of I/O (I didn't create the script, I am just using it). At the very least, the error messages tell me that it checks the current working directory a lot for some reason. The bottom line is that, when I run this script, the HDD unexpectedly gets unmounted at some point while the script is running. During my first attempt, it ran almost 48 hours before this happened. In subsequent attempts, it lasted 10 minutes and 40 minutes.

I checked both ends of the USB connection. While they have some wiggle room, it isn't enough to cause a physical disconnect (I tried). It also doesn't seem to be something with the HDD as simply turning off, then on, the docking station and/or unplugging and replugging in the USB cable seems to get the computer to remount the drive with no issues.

One thing I could try is running it using my internal drive. However, I am a bit nervous about what might happen if that ends up getting unmounted while the script (and all my other programs) is running.

Any ideas?

Edit:

Per waltinator's suggestion below, I ran the following after determining which device it was.

sudo zgrep '/dev/sdc' /var/log/*

This is what I got:

/var/log/udev:DEVNAME=/dev/sdc
/var/log/udev:DEVNAME=/dev/sdc1
/var/log/udev:DEVNAME=/dev/sdc2
/var/log/udev:DEVNAME=/dev/sdc
/var/log/udev:DEVNAME=/dev/sdc1
/var/log/udev:DEVNAME=/dev/sdc2

I am not sure if there is anything useful in there. It is important to note that the HDD appeared to be properly mounted at the time I did this. I am guessing there would be something else if I ran then after it got unmounted?

I am trying to connect to a network printer that is a Toshiba e-Studio3505AC. At first I tried doing it through System Settings > Printers > Add > Network Printer > Find Network Printer. I entered the host address but wasn't sure what to select for Connection. Based on what I was able to find online, it seems that it is supposed to be one of the LPD/LPR queue options; but which one isn't clear. Based on other things I found online, I assumed it was LPD/LPR queue ''. Clicked Forward. When using Select printer from database, I select Toshiba (recommended) then click Forward. I look though the list and it isn't there. When using Search for a printer driver to download, it just finds Toshiba e-Studio350. So I figured I needed the PPD.

I tried to get the PPD by going to the support page. I downloaded linux.tar (which is not the PPD as far as I can tell) and then tried to follow the instructions in the installation guide.

Here are the two issues.

1. The shell script wants me to restart my lpd. However, I am having trouble finding directions on how to do that. I can find a lot about lpd including the manpage, discussions of what it is, etc. but nothing about how to restart it.
2. The installation guide says the linux users still need to add the printer via the OS's printer management tool. I am assuming that is what I used in my earlier attempts. When I do that, there is no change in what happens.

I am trying to install Dragonfly on Ubuntu 14.04. After working out several other issues with the installation, I am now dealing with the problem that I need to get libsystemd.so.0. Based both on the name and on threads from other help communities, I thought I would get it if I installed systemd. However, that does not seem to be the case. I ran sudo updatedb and then locate libsystemd.so.0 and it returned nothing. Is there a step I am missing or did I install the completely wrong package?

Edit:

I just ended up installing on a Windows instead. Would have been nice if the docs told you 14.04 and earlier aren't supported. All it says is you need 64-bit Linux.

I had originally asked this as a follow-up question here. Unfortunately, there haven't been any replies so I am posting it as its own question.

According to the documentation, you are supposed to be able to use ssh options with sshfs. How do you do this? I have tried something like -o User=joe but then fuse gives me an error saying that "User" is not a recognized option.

Also, help with this question would also be appreciated.

Edit:

I am specifically referring to the following from the manpage for sshfs.

SSHFS options:

  -p PORT
         equivalent to '-o port=PORT'

  -C     equivalent to '-o compression=yes'

  ⋮

  -o password_stdin
         read password from stdin (only for pam_mount!)

  -o SSHOPT=VAL
         ssh options (see man ssh_config)

I am trying to specify the remote username separate from the host (in other words, not user@host:dir). The reason is that particular format is not friendly with some institutionally assigned usernames. For example, if the institution assigns the user name [email protected], programs such as sshfs and curlftpfs will not correctly interpret [email protected]@host:dir. Instead, they will try to login as First.Last to the host institution.edu@host.

Could you explain a bit more about idmap? I am not literate enough to understand what the manpage is saying.

Edit:

If I use idmap, I am going to have to create hardcoded files. I was hoping to avoid that so that the user can just use a single command without needing to know how it works in the background. Eventually, other people might be using it even after I leave. Even so, the documentation says the file format is username:uid. Which is the local and which is remote?

Is it possible to directly transfer files between two remote servers when they don't use the same protocol? I have a lot of files on serverA (which, at least for now, must be accessed using SFTP) and want to copy them to serverB (which must be accessed using FTP). Unfortunately, I can't do anything on the servers themselves as I am an external client for both.

I know from searching that this has come up multiple times in the last few years. However most of the solutions are simply to ensure the ownership of .Xautority is set properly and that 777 is set as the permissions for /tmp. In my case, neither of these are the issue; I checked. Another common cause I found was Nvidia vs. Nouveau graphics drivers. However, I have rebooted and used the computer several times since I last changed the graphics driver and did not have any issues.

The issues started after I allowed the AutoUpdate program to install some updates. It might be worth noting that these updates are a bit suspicious. It wanted to install them yesterday and I initially said no. Then I ran the updater manually and it said there were no updates. When it asked me again today, I said yes and it did its thing. It then asked me to reboot the computer which I did. That is when the trouble started. Below is the contents of the various .xsession-errors files.

User 1 Attempt 1

Script for ibus started at run_im.
Script for auto started at run_im.
Script for default started at run_im.
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: gnome-session (Unity) main process (2563) terminated with status 1
init: unity-settings-daemon main process (2537) killed by TERM signal
init: logrotate main process (2458) killed by TERM signal
init: update-notifier-crash (/var/crash/_usr_bin_nautilus.1000.crash) main process (2496) killed by TERM signal
init: update-notifier-release main process (2502) killed by TERM signal
init: xsession-init main process (2531) killed by TERM signal
init: hud main process (2550) killed by TERM signal
init: unity-panel-service main process (2576) killed by TERM signal
init: Disconnected from notified D-Bus bus
init: window-stack-bridge main process (2488) killed by KILL signal

User 1 Attempt 2

Script for ibus started at run_im.
Script for auto started at run_im.
Script for default started at run_im.
init: gnome-session (Unity) main process (2010) terminated with status 1
init: unity-settings-daemon main process (2002) killed by TERM signal
init: Disconnected from notified D-Bus bus
init: logrotate main process (1928) killed by TERM signal
init: window-stack-bridge main process (1959) killed by TERM signal
init: update-notifier-release main process (1978) killed by TERM signal
init: hud main process (2006) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-bluetooth main process (2088) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-power main process (2094) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-datetime main process (2095) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-sound main process (2098) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-printers main process (2103) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-session main process (2108) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-application main process (2148) killed by TERM signal

User 2 Attempt 1

Script for ibus started at run_im.
Script for auto started at run_im.
Script for default started at run_im.
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: gnome-session (Unity) main process (2642) terminated with status 1
init: unity-settings-daemon main process (2634) killed by TERM signal
init: logrotate main process (2427) killed by TERM signal
init: update-notifier-release main process (2468) killed by TERM signal
init: upstart-dbus-session-bridge main process (2472) terminated with status 1
init: xsession-init main process (2631) killed by TERM signal
init: hud main process (2638) killed by TERM signal
init: unity-panel-service main process (2648) killed by TERM signal
init: at-spi2-registryd main process (2687) terminated with status 1
init: Disconnected from notified D-Bus bus

Edit:

Another common solution I found was to force the creation of a new .Xauthority by renaming the existing one. I tried this and it also did not work.

User 1 Attempt 3

Script for ibus started at run_im.
Script for auto started at run_im.
Script for default started at run_im.
init: gnome-session (Unity) main process (2022) terminated with status 1
init: Disconnected from notified D-Bus bus
init: logrotate main process (1939) killed by TERM signal
init: window-stack-bridge main process (1970) killed by TERM signal
init: update-notifier-release main process (1990) killed by TERM signal
init: hud main process (2018) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-bluetooth main process (2099) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-power main process (2101) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-datetime main process (2105) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-sound main process (2110) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-printers main process (2114) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-session main process (2119) killed by TERM signal
init: indicator-application main process (2133) killed by TERM signal

Edit:

Incase this information helps at all, when I run:

sudo apt-get -f install

All it does is list packages I can remove using "autoremove"; all but one of them being for previous kernel versions.

Edit:

Logging in as root doesn't work but I do get an error message this time.

I also tried rerunning Nvidia's configuration script but that didn't help either.

When I was in TTY, I tried using "lshw" to view the driver information per How can I find what video driver is in use on my system?. It had the lines "*-display UNCLAIMED" and "configuration: latency=0".

I also checked the old xorg.conf and found that it was competely empty. Is this why my attempts to move back to the Nouveau driver failed?

The lab I work for recently got a new Dell Precision Tower 5810. We have a 4TB HDD in there in addition to the smaller one it traditionally comes with. Because the larger institution has standardized IT support, we cannot mess with the smaller drive and thus must use the 4TB for booting Ubuntu. I am trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 from a LiveCD which we have used in the past. Previous installations were successful on other computers of the same product name. The largest differences between the new computer and the old ones, as far as I know at the moment, is that the new computer has next-version processors and 2x the additional HDD space.

When I install Ubuntu on the HDD, it claims to be successful. Furthermore Windows' disk manager, although unable to identify the Ubuntu partitions, acknowledges that something is there. However, when I try to boot the computer from the 4TB drive, it insists it cannot find a bootloader.

I have reformatted the drive and reinstalled Ubuntu but that does not help. While reinstalling Ubuntu, I have also tried putting it in different sections on the HDD (ex. beginning versus end of the drive). I have also used the LiveCD to attempt a purge of Grub; no success there.

Because of this, I am starting to think that the computer just isn't able to boot from a 4TB drive. However, I have yet to find documentation to support this idea.

Does anyone have any ideas? Please keep in mind, I don't have much depth when it comes to the technical aspects of computers.

Edits:

Per a comment below, I am moving some relevant information into the original post.

Here is the boot info for the initial state of the issue. http://paste.ubuntu.com/23920806

I thought the issue might be were Grub was installed so I changed it and got the following. http://paste.ubuntu.com/23921965

I think I might have found a post about a similar problem, but there is no answer. Boot-Repair: "core.img can not be found"

To clarify, we are installing Ubuntu 14.04.3 on a secondary drive which has been partitioned using GPT. We use legacy boot. We install Grub on the secondary drive and then change the BIOS settings to boot from there instead of the primary drive. We do this using a live cd. This procedure has worked on previous Dell Precision Tower 5810s that have 2TB secondary drives. We are now trying to do this for a 4TB secondary drive. Based on the boot info, it appears that grub is not looking in the correct place for one of its image files. However, I have not been able to find a way to correct this. I have tried reinstalling Grub as well as reinstalling Ubuntu. In the case of reinstalling Ubuntu, I have tried both with and without reformatting the entire drive.

So, I tried to do this with a 2TB drive just like we have in the past. As can be seen at the following boot info page, it does not appear to have the same missing image file issue. However, the computer still will not boot from it. Please note that in this case, the 2TB drive is in the new computer so it is sdb not sdc. http://paste.ubuntu.com/23955960/

So, it was brought to my attention that using a GPT partitioned drive for Grub requires a dedicated Grub partition. I was previously unaware of this because that particular information appears as a short paragraph in the Grub installation instructions (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing#BIOS.2FGPT_Notes) but is not in the general Ubuntu installation instructions. At this point, I have put the 4TB drive back into the new computer and have resumed attempts to install Ubuntu on it. However, despite following the online instructions to the best of my knowledge, Grub still does not work. Based on the boot info, the previous issue of a missing image file appears to have re-emerged. The following boot info is from after an attempt to purge and reinstall Grub. The screenshot shows what GParted displays when examining the 4TB drive. When installing Grub, during both Ubuntu installation and Grub reinstallation, I select sdb as the installation location for Grub.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/23958163/

As requested by oldfred, I have checked the Secure Boot settings. I am working on Windows 7 Enterprise so msinfo32 does not display this status. However, I was able to check by accessing the boot settings upon booting the computer. If anyone knows a simpler method, feel free to share. Regardless, below are two images showing the current Secure Boot configuration for the computer in question.

Reinstalled but not purged using Boot-Repair: http://paste.ubuntu.com/23969162/

Per ubfan1's suggestion (and apparent "fine print" at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DiskSpace#BIOS-Boot_or_EFI_partition_.28required_on_GPT_disks.29), I have moved the bios_grub partition to the front of the disk. However, it still doesn't boot.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/23990368/

Per ubfan1's suggestion (and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DiskSpace#Separate_.2Fboot_.28sometimes_required.29), I created a separate boot partition. I then reinstalled Ubuntu but it still will not boot.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/23990755/

I have used Boot-Repair to purge and reinstall Grub but it still won't boot.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/23990829/

Per oldfred's comment, I have tried to add the "boot" flag to a partition. I have done so in the following configurations without success.

+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
| configuration | partition | mount point | file system |         flags         |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     1     |             |  biosgrub   | bios_grub legacy_boot |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     2     |    /boot    |    ext4     |                       |
|       1       +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     3     |             |    swap     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     4     |      /      |    ext4     |                       |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     1     |             |  biosgrub   |         boot          |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     2     |    /boot    |    ext4     |                       |
|       2       +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     3     |             |    swap     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     4     |      /      |    ext4     |                       |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     1     |             |  biosgrub   |       bios_grub       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     2     |             |    ext4     |      legacy_boot      |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|       3       |     3     |    /boot    |    ext4     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     4     |             |    swap     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     5     |      /      |    ext4     |                       |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     1     |             |  biosgrub   |       bios_grub       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     2     |             |    ext4     |         boot          |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|       4       |     3     |    /boot    |    ext4     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     4     |             |    swap     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     5     |      /      |    ext4     |                       |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     1     |             |  biosgrub   |       bios_grub       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     2     |             |    ntfs     |         boot          |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|       5       |     3     |    /boot    |    ext4     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     4     |             |    swap     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     5     |      /      |    ext4     |                       |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     1     |             |  biosgrub   |       bios_grub       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     2     |             |    ntfs     |   boot legacy_boot    |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|       6       |     3     |    /boot    |    ext4     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     4     |             |    swap     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     5     |      /      |    ext4     |                       |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     1     |             |  biosgrub   |       bios_grub       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     2     |             |    fat32    |   boot legacy_boot    |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|       7       |     3     |    /boot    |    ext4     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     4     |             |    swap     |                       |
|               +-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+
|               |     5     |      /      |    ext4     |                       |
+---------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------+

Someone (not on here) suggested wiping the entire drive. I did so using "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb". I then set the drive to use GPT. I tried installing Ubuntu and I am having the same issue as the previous attempt.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/24009927/

Where does openssh-server get the "Last Login" information from?

I recently logged in remotely from a Windows machine using SSH Secure Shell 3.2.9 and the reported last login was from a network location I do not recognize. I then checked auth.log (more specifically, auth.log.1) and found no log entries pertaining to the reported network location. I usually remote in via VPN so I know the IP of the computer logged-in changes. However, it typically takes the form of an IP address where as this particular attempt was recorded as unknownComputerName.knownNetworkName. I find it a bit odd that there is no matching entry in auth.log because I know for a fact that even failed attempts are recorded.

Also, I am new to using Ubuntu and a novice at remote access. That being said, please correct any mistakes I may have made with regards to terminology. Also, please let me know if this type of question is better asked somewhere else.

I am running a python program that, for some reason, goes crazy once in a while. I am then forced to kill the program but the RAM and Swap used by the program is not released. This causes the hanging issue during shutdown as has already been reported by other users.

The solution to the hanging issue is to clear the Swap prior to shutdown. The only way I have seen online to clear Swap is through the use of swapoff/swapon. However, use of swapoff requires enough RAM to move everything over (even if the data is no longer in use).

The issue is that the program sometimes also fills the RAM. Thus, the system will refuse to execute swapoff. Is there some way to clear Swap without requiring RAM or am I just going to have to cut power to my computer every time this happens? Alternatively, is there a way to clear RAM so that there is enough space to run swapoff? Or perhaps there is a way to find the memory claimed by the killed program and have Ubuntu clear just that?